Your doctor will probably start by talking to you about your symptoms. You may be asked how long you've had symptoms and how much they affect your life. Your doctor will probably want to know if you feel short of breath when you are sitting still and whether you have pain in your chest when you walk up a flight of stairs.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Hunt SA, Baker DW, Goldstein S, et al.
ACC/AHA guidelines for the evaluation and managemernt of chronic heart failure in adults.
Available at www.americanheart.org (accessed on 7 July 2009).

 

 

 

 

 

¹

Your doctor will listen to your heart and lungs, and you will need to have some blood tests.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Hunt SA, Baker DW, Goldstein S, et al.
ACC/AHA guidelines for the evaluation and managemernt of chronic heart failure in adults.
Available at www.americanheart.org (accessed on 7 July 2009).

 

 

 

 

 

¹ You will need to go to the hospital for some of your tests.

This is the best test for diagnosing heart failure.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Hunt SA, Baker DW, Goldstein S, et al.
ACC/AHA guidelines for the evaluation and managemernt of chronic heart failure in adults.
Available at www.americanheart.org (accessed on 7 July 2009).

 

 

 

 

 

¹ It's sometimes called an "echo" for short. It is an ultrasound of your heart. A doctor or a trained technician puts some gel on your chest and then puts an ultrasound probe on your chest, with the gel underneath the probe to make it more comfortable. By moving the probe over your chest, it takes pictures of your heart as it pumps blood. The doctor can then look at the ultrasound of your heart to see if it is pumping normally or not. An echo can also tell the doctor about the size and shape of your heart, whether it has been damaged by a heart attack, and whether or not your heart valves work properly. The doctor can check how well it's pumping blood.

BNP stands for B-type natriuretic peptide. It's a hormone made by your heart. If the amount of BNP in your blood in higher than normal, it's a sign that you could have heart failure.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Khunti K, Baker R, Grimshaw G.
Diagnosis of patients with chronic heart failure in primary care: usefulness of history, examination, and investigations.
British Journal of General Practice. 2000; 50: 50-54.

 

 

 

 

 

² Doctors also use this test to see how bad your heart failure is.

If your BNP is very low, you can be pretty sure that you don't have heart failure and don't need further tests.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Doust JA, Glasziou PP, Pietrzak E, et al.
A systematic review of the diagnostic accuracy of natriuretic peptides for heart failure.
Archives of Internal Medicine. 2004; 164: 1978-1984.

 

 

 

 

 

³

You might be given an

 

 

 

 

 

MRI scan
The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine uses a magnetic field to create detailed pictures of the inside of the body. These pictures allow doctors to look at parts of the body in three-dimensional images.

 

 

 

 

 

MRI scan or a

 

 

 

 

 

CT scan
A CT scan is a type of X-ray. It takes several detailed pictures of the inside of your body from different angles. CT stands for computed tomography. It's also called a CAT scan (computed axial tomography).

 

 

 

 

 

CT scan of your heart.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Hunt SA, Baker DW, Goldstein S, et al.
ACC/AHA guidelines for the evaluation and managemernt of chronic heart failure in adults.
Available at www.americanheart.org (accessed on 7 July 2009).

 

 

 

 

 

¹ This helps doctors check the size of your heart and the different chambers inside it. A bigger heart than normal usually means that it has to work harder to pump blood around the body and that you have heart failure.

An electrocardiogram is often called an ECG or EKG for short. It measures the electrical activity in your heart and can help doctors figure out if you may have had heart damage in the past. Sometimes an ECG will show that your heart is enlarged. This is a common finding in someone with heart failure. This test helps your doctor work out whether your have heart failure and what may be causing it.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Hunt SA, Baker DW, Goldstein S, et al.
ACC/AHA guidelines for the evaluation and managemernt of chronic heart failure in adults.
Available at www.americanheart.org (accessed on 7 July 2009).

 

 

 

 

 

¹

If your ECG shows something is wrong, your doctor will do extra tests to find out more. If your ECG is normal, you may still have heart failure so you should have further tests to check that you don't have heart failure.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Khunti K, Baker R, Grimshaw G.
Diagnosis of patients with chronic heart failure in primary care: usefulness of history, examination, and investigations.
British Journal of General Practice. 2000; 50: 50-54.

 

 

 

 

 

²

Your doctor will probably use a scoring system to rate your symptoms. To learn more, see How heart failure is classified.

Your doctor may ask you questions from a test that has been designed to help doctors find out how much heart failure affects their patients. If you want to read a version of this test, see the Quality-of-life test. Your doctor may also measure how far you can walk in six minutes. To find out about this test, see the Six-minute walk test.

You may have blood tests to see how well your liver and kidneys are working and to test whether you have diabetes or high cholesterol.

You may also have a chest X-ray.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Hunt SA, Baker DW, Goldstein S, et al.
ACC/AHA guidelines for the evaluation and managemernt of chronic heart failure in adults.
Available at www.americanheart.org (accessed on 7 July 2009).

 

 

 

 

 

¹ This takes a picture of your lungs and is used to check whether something other than heart failure is causing your symptoms.

And you may be asked to blow into a peak flow meter or a spirometer to check for lung disease.

The results of your tests will help your doctor be certain that your symptoms are caused by heart failure, not another illness. Your doctor may refer you to a specialist, especially if you have other illnesses or you are pregnant.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Khunti K, Baker R, Grimshaw G.
Diagnosis of patients with chronic heart failure in primary care: usefulness of history, examination, and investigations.
British Journal of General Practice. 2000; 50: 50-54.

 

 

 

 

 

²

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